Dozens of AIDS groups are fighting
in Albany for $12 million in new state AIDS funding targeted directly
at the needs of communities of color. This would be the largest
increase in AIDS funding in the past decade.

Housing Works, NYAC, Harlem United,
the Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, the Latino Commission
on AIDS, People of Color in Crisis and others are planning a large
demonstration and civil disobedience on Tuesday, APRIL 9 in Albany,
before the state budget is final.

The groups involved are aiming
for 500 people to take part in the demonstration and for a civil
disobedience/direct action on the steps of the Capitol with over
150 people to be arrested. We have pledges from dozens of legislators,
ministers and executive directors to take part in the direct action
and be arrested.

The arrests will be negotiated
with the Capitol Police, and we expect that people will be released
within two or three hours with misdemeanor charges.

We will arrange lawyers for all
arrestees, who will negotiate reduced or dropped charges for an
expected court date a week or so later. This is a fairly "easy"
arrest, so those staff and clients who have been thinking about
doing direct action should jump right in. CD trainings will include
information on how to check warrant status, etc. for those who
may be at risk.

Charles King of Housing Works
and other EDs will lead Civil Disobedience/Direct Action training
across New York during the month of March. Four trainings are
currently scheduled:

New York AIDS Activists and
Lawmaker Demand Increase in State Budget for HIV/AIDS Services
in Albany Protests

Hundreds of demonstrators yesterday protested
at the New York State Capitol building in Albany demanding an
increase in the state budget for funding of HIV/AIDS programs,
AP/Newsday reports (AP/Newsday, 4/9). Sixty-one of the approximately
300 protestors, including Assembly member Roger Green (D), blocked
the door to the Capitol as part of the protest and were arrested
for "disorderly conduct," in what Albany police called
"the largest civil disobedience act" there in more than
10 years (Coppola, Newsday, 4/10). The protestors called for the
Legislature to restore $7.9 million in funding for the New York
State Department of Health's AIDS Institute, which provides counseling
and testing among other services, and $10 million for the Homeless
Housing Assistance Program that Gov. George Pataki (R) cut in
his budget proposal. They also called for $12 million in new funding
for programs specifically targeting minority communities. According
to state Department of Health spokesperson Kris Smith, an estimated
100,000 to 170,000 New York residents are HIV-positive, approximately
80% of whom are minorities. "When the epidemic had a different
color the money was going up and up and up," Latino Commission
on AIDS President Dennis DeLeon said, adding, "Now that the
epidemic looks like us, the money is going down and down and down"
(AP/Newsday, 4/9). Pataki spokesperson Kevin Quinn said that the
governor's budget proposal, which provides $108 million in state
funding for the AIDS Institute, allots $2.3 billion -- including
federal funds -- to HIV/AIDS programs, making it "the highest
level of funding in state history" (Newsday, 4/10). Those
arrested were freed within hours of the incident (AP/Newsday,
4/9).

Members of Reclaim the Streets New York
participated in the state budget CD organized by Housing Works,
the New York City AIDS Housing Network, CitiWide Harm Reduction,
and countless other groups. Members of the Vieques Support Group
and ACT UP New York were also on hand. Armed with makeshift somba
drums/ paint buckets and the passion of the global justice movements,
we introduced the "This is What Democracy Looks Like"
chant to a protest and fight for local poverty.

Members of the New York State Legislature,
Black Clergy, a Bhuddest nun, hundreds of people with HIV/AIDS,
mostly people of color, and countless poverty burocrats chanted
"AIDS Won't Wait for the Budget Debate, AIDS Funding Now!"
and "Health Care is a Right, Health Care is a Right!"
and "You say Cut Back! We Say Fuck That!" "Cut
Back, Fight Back!!!" as we took over the steps of the Legislative
Office Building and then blocked the entrances of the Legislature.
But more than anything, the calls for a renewed democracy prooved
the most urgent of cries. While the action was specifically targeted
to monies for AIDS and Homeless services, the subtext was its
no longer time to wait, be patient or polite until the military
"crisis" is over, until sanity re-enters the fold, until
the state says it has decided its done playing with the 9/11 excuse,
rejustifying not funding a group of people it was never interested
in serving in the first place.

We read "Letter from a Birmingham Jail
on the way to the action. The question of patience with a segregationist
status quo permeates the essay. Finally, MLK states, " My
friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain
in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure.
Lamentably, it is a historical fact that privleged groups seldom
give up their privleges voluntarily. Individuals may see the
moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but,
as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral
than individuals.

"We know painfully through experience
that freedom is never voluntarily give by the oppressor; it must
be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in
a direct action campaign that was "well timed" in the
view of thosewho ahve not suffered unduly from the disease of
segregation. For years now I have heard "wait." It
rings in the ear of every negro with piercing familiarity. This
"Wait" has almost always meant 'Never." We must
come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice
too long delayed is justice denied."

As the global justice movements attempts
to find its legs after 9/11, these are good words to remember.
It we sit back too long... justice delayed may just become justice
denied for yet another generation.

The important thing I saw in the action
was that police are again seeing the distinction between activist
and terrorist, something the powers that be have tried to neutralize
and blur. We were out of jail in three hours, thanks in part
to good negotiations by the Housing Works legal folks, and all.
___--Ben Shepard

HUNDREDS RALLY AT STATE
CAPITOL TO DEMAND NEW STATE FUNDING TO FIGHT HIV/AIDS IN COMMUNITIES
OF COLOR AND RESTORATION OF PROPOSED AIDS FUNDING
CUTS; 61 ARRESTED IN CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

Over 500 demonstrators from across
New York rallied at the State Capitol Tuesday to demand new HIV/AIDS
funding for hard-hit communities of color and restoration of proposed
AIDS budget cuts. The "Day of Prayer and Action" included
a large march, prayer vigils with more than a dozen clergy and
a large-scale direct action.

61 protesters were arrested in a
civil disobedience action, blocking entrances to the Capitol to
send the message: "no new state budget without new funding
to fight AIDS in communities of color and full restoration of
AIDS budget cuts." Many of the arrestees were first-time
participants in civil disobedience. All were charged with disorderly
conduct and released with adjournments in contemplation of dismissal;
after 6 months without an arrest, the charges will be dropped.

The event drew wide media coverage,
include stories on all four Albany broadcast television stations,
print stories by the Associated Press, Newsday, prominent photos
in the New York Times, Albany Times-Union, Schenectady Gazette
and other papers, and radio coverage on New York Public Radio,
WGY-AM, and other outlets. Additional stories are expected on
the television program "Inside Albany" and in the Albany
alternative weekly Metroland. In addition, dozens of papers statewide
picked up the AP story and wire photos.

"We took action today because
there is a crisis in our state -- 83% of AIDS cases in New York
now occur in communities of color," said Keith Cylar, co-President
of Housing Works. "Our African-American, Latino, Asian/Pacific
Islander and Native American communities are hardest-hit by HIV/AIDS,
and we've got to get new resources if we are going to save lives."

"HIV infections among men,
women and youth of color are rising rapidly all over the state,"
said Soraya Elcock, Deputy Director for Prevention, Education
& Policy at Harlem United. "We need a state budget we
can live with ­ we need new funding and full restoration of
the proposed cuts. Money saves lives, period."

"A budget that fails to include
restoration of $17.9 million for HIV/AIDS services or targeted
new resources will have an devastating impact on the health and
well-being of thousands of HIV-positive New Yorkers," said
Joe Pressley, Executive Director of the New York AIDS Coalition.
"We need both sustained and increased funding to reduce the
disproportionate impact of HIV/AIDS in communities of color."

According to preliminary figures
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, AIDS cases
in New York were up 58% in the last year, with an even higher
increase of 125% outside of New York City.

"We haven't had anywhere near
enough resources directed at HIV/AIDS in our highest-risk communities
for the past ten years," said Dennis DeLeon, Executive Director
of the Latino Commission on AIDS. "It's time for action of
historic proportion."

"There is no question ­
without action, our people will continue to die," said Debra
Fraser-Howze, President of the National Black Leadership Commission
on AIDS.

Participants in the day's events
were unanimous in their support for a funding initiative put forward
by the Black, Puerto Rican & Hispanic Legislative Caucus and
the Assembly Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force for $12 million
in new state funding targeting HIV/AIDS in Communities of Color.
The new funding initiative is supported by dozens of legislators
and organizations around the state.

"For our communities, AIDS
is ground zero, too," said Assembly Member Roger Green, chair
of the Caucus. "In its impact on our people and our families,
AIDS is a brutal attack, and we must obtain the resources we need
to fight back."

AIDS advocates felt they were on
the brink of large state funding increases last year, but after
September 11 they found themselves facing funding cuts, not increases.
"Filling in cuts is necessary, but it's not enough,"
said Lakeisha Dandy, Executive Director of the Long Island Minority
AIDS Coalition. "We have an explosion of people of color
living with AIDS and HIV on Long Island, and the same old funding
just isn't going to cut it."

Gary English, Executive Director
of People of Color in Crisis in Brooklyn, said that new funding
is desperately needed for prevention efforts. "The latest
studies show infection rates of over one-third among young African-American
men who have sex with men. And infection rates nearly double as
teenagers move into their early and mid-twenties ­ we need
new prevention resources targeted to our hardest-hit groups."

Assembly Member Peter Rivera, Chair
of the Assembly Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force, said he would
work hard for new funding in this year's budget. "It's a
tight budget year, but all of us recognize the urgency of this
initiative. Latino and African-American leaders are unified by
our communities' needs ­ people are dying, and we must find
a way to fight back in this year's budget."

"I am a registered voter from
(your neighborhood) and the most important
issue to me this year is new funding to fight AIDS. We need $12
million to
fight AIDS in communities of color, we need full restoration of
Governor
Pataki's proposed budget cuts, and we need $2 million in funding
for AIDS
Adult Day Health Care programs. It's a matter of life and death.
Make sure
this funding gets into the budget this year."

FACT SHEET: APRIL 9 "DAY OF
PRAYER AND ACTION" TO DEMAND NEW FUNDING TO
FIGHT HIV/AIDS IN COMMUNITIES OF COLOR AND FULL RESTORATION OF
PROPOSED AIDS
BUDGET CUTS

83% of AIDS cases in New York occur
in communities of color
HIV infections among men, women and youth of color rising rapidly
all over
the state
AIDS cases are up 58% in New York in the last year
No adequate state resources directed at HIV/AIDS in these highest-risk
communities for the past ten years

Our proposal:

$12.5 million in new State funding
to fight HIV/AIDS in communities of
color -- $12 million initiative being proposed by Assembly, $500,000
by
Senate Supported by the Black, Puerto Rican & Hispanic Legislative
Caucus, the
Assembly Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force, and dozens of legislators
and
HIV/AIDS service and advocacy organizations Assembly $12M proposal
supported
by Caucus Chair Roger Green, Task Force Chair Peter Rivera, Health
Committee Chair
Dick Gottfried, Social Services Chair Deborah Glick; Senate $.5M
proposal by
Health Committee Chair Kemp Hannon Restoration of $7.9 million
in AIDS Institute
funding and $10 million in homeless housing funding cut by Governor
Pataki in his
executive budget proposal ­ similar cuts proposed every year
Gov. Pataki has been in office

__________________________________________________________

The Housing Works New York State
AIDS Issues Update is reported, written and
edited by Michael Kink and staff at the Housing Works Albany Advocacy
Center. You can reach Update staff by phone at 518-449-4207, by
fax at
518-449-4219, or by email at nysaidsupdate@hotmail.com.

Housing Works provides housing,
advocacy and services to homeless people
living with AIDS and HIV and is New York's largest AIDS organization
and the
nation's largest minority-controlled AIDS service organization.